7 Tools to Better Manage Your Social Networks

CIO — When you belong to several social networking sites—Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter—(and don't we all?), keeping up with them can seem overwhelming. Tweet this. Update that status. Share a link here. If you've resolved to get more organized this year, consider these seven tools that save time and streamline your social networking interactions. My picks: For easy content sharing across platforms, be sure to check out the browser plugin Shareaholic. And for simple synching and updating of multiple accounts, Atomkeep seems to be the most efficient.

1. 8Hands. The desktop application organizes your social networking profiles (such as Facebook, WordPress, Flickr, Twitter and YouTube) into one place. It sends you notifications when you receive new comments, messages, friend requests or videos; generates summaries and statistics on your social networking activities; and features a chat window where you can drag and drop YouTube videos or Flickr pictures to share with others.

2. Atomkeep. This service allows you to import, synch and merge your profile data from a wide variety of sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Digg and Plurk. It also makes updating pieces of information—such as your e-mail address—across several platforms quite easy: Update that specific field in your Atomkeep profile (instead of visiting each site individually) and push it to all or select sites. Note that there's a backlog in approving accounts at the moment, as the company site states: "All accounts are activated in batches, as soon as our capacity allows. Please don't ask when, as we can't give you any timeframe on this."

3. FriendBinder. FriendBinder aggregates your existing friends from your networks and displays them in a single stream of information. It organizes your Twitter mentions and direct messages, and displays when someone favorites a photo of yours on Flickr or invites you to an event on Facebook. FriendBinder also displays trending topics and threads Twitter conversations, making them easier to follow.

4. FriendFeed. This tool displays a personalized, real-time feed of what your friends are sharing on various social media and social networking sites. You can comment or "like" items that appear in your feed, and have real-time conversations with your friends about the posts. You also may choose from a list of over 50 sites that you may belong to, and share items with your friends accordingly.

5. Ping.fm. Primarily a site that lets you update multiple statuses simultaneously, Ping.fm groups services into three categories—status updates, blogs and microblogs. You can configure the account to aggregate content from several services, including Delicious, Facebook, Laconica, LinkedIn, Twitter and WordPress.

6. Pond. The Pond social media aggregator and publishing tool allows you to follow your friends, collect information about them and share your own content. Pond also lets you merge your friends' online identities—so, for example, if your friend belongs to Twitter, Facebook and Flickr, you'll see updates from these services in one integrated time line. Pond also allows you to cross-publish information to several sites with one update.

7. Shareaholic. Shareholic is a customizable browser add-on that lets you share content with over 60 social networking sites. By clicking the Shareaholic icon, you can instantly share the page you're on (it automatically shortens the link for you). It also displays real-time trending topics, allowing you to find the latest news, videos and blogs.

What are your favorites?

Staff Writer Kristin Burnham covers consumer Web and social technologies for CIO.com. She writes frequently on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google (GOOG). You can follow her on Twitter: @kmburnham.